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Comment by NeutralForest | Hacker News Reader

The risk is overstated, many people have used without any issue and there is no control group as well, those programmers might have issues either way, Emacs or not.

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  > there is no control group as well

VIM users?

Maybe, now there needs a case for significant differences in pain levels among Emacs vs Vim users.

To be fair, the pain that VIM users feel is not in their digits or wrists!

:wq

VIM started flirting with giving me RSI issues (mostly : and esc keys; yes, even on capslock. I have small hands) after some years. It's a comparison certainly but not a control.

> esc key

You may use Ctrl-[ instead. What do you mean about capslock? Mapping capslock to esc?

With a modern firmware or maybe software you can map capslock to be escape when tapped and control when held. I hear this is nice for vi, and it’s also nice for emacs since escape can serve as meta.

I’m going to try that with the key left of space, since it feels completely obvious that the thumb is the natural best finger for modifier keys.

I've been using this for years and can say it's very nice.

Caps2esc under Wayland and I think I used to use xcape under x11 though it's been a while. (caps2esc has a configurable framework so you can use that for a different key and it should work nicely for you)

As a heavy VIM user, that combo never made sense to me. ESC is a single pinky or other finger (I personally move my entire left hand forward and out from the elbow, and press ESC with my middle finger). Using Ctrl-[ requires using _two_ weak pinkies.

Also the problem affects the whole the meta group of coders, beyond emacs. Even in the article one of the poor RSI victims explicitly is an avid vi user and emacs hater (John Ousterhout of TCL fame).

Phew.

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